The shares include 300,000 that were awarded to him in 2011, the time of the News Corporation bid for Sky.

Meanwhile Andrew Griffith, the chief financial officer of Sky, will receive a total pay packet of £8.86 million, an increase of 262 per cent compared to last year. Griffith is paid a base salary of £620,000 and his long-term incentive plan bonus comes in at £6.30 million for 2015.

Total employee costs at Sky this year came in at £1.33 billion.

Sky’s report said performance was "excellent" across the group, as it closed the financial year with revenues up 5 per cent to £11.3 billion. In July it posted an adjusted pre-tax profit of £1.20 billion, an increase of 6 per cent on the previous year.

The broadcaster added 973,000 new customers during that period, up 45 per cent on the previous year, in its first annual results since it bought its sister companies in Germany and Italy last year for £.4.9 billion.